Hand care in the workplace effects both work related activities and worker health. Hand hygiene is essential for certain activities and services including, but not limited to, healthcare, food preparation and food service. Hand hygiene is important for virtually all workplaces to maintain a healthy environment and to limit spread of bacteria, viruses and other disease causing micro-organisms. Hand hygiene can be accomplished by washing with soap and water and/or by using liquids such as a waterless sanitizing product. Hygiene products that are used for hand hygiene are commonly dispensed by dispensers that are located where hand hygiene is desired. Hand skin care products can promote worker health in avoiding and treating hand skin conditions that can reduce worker performance and productivity. The invention concerns reporting use of hand care product dispensers for both hand hygiene and hand skin care.
In hospital settings, the spread of healthcare acquired infections known as HAI's is an increasing concern. HAIs can result from transmission of bacteria, viruses and other disease causing micro-organisms from various sources such as a patient or environmental surfaces to another patient or surface via the hands of healthcare workers. A consequence of such transmission can be infection of a patient who was previously not infected. Health care facilities have battled MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and VRSA (vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and other drug resistant micro-organisms for many years. These problems have been more apparent in recent years. It is estimated that approximately 2,000,000 such HAIs occur annually in the U.S. alone resulting in about 100,000 deaths. The extra costs associated with these infections are estimated in the billions of dollars.
In the food industry, the proper hand sanitization is necessary to prevent the spread of foodborne bacteria and/or viruses including Norovirus, the Hepatitis A virus, Salmonella Typhi, Shigella spp., and Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 or other Enterohemorrhagic or Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp. and Streptococcus pyogenes. Hand washing by food employees is essential after activities that contaminate hands and before activities during which pathogens may be spread to food. One of the activities in the food industry that can lead to food contamination and food borne illness is failure to exercise proper hand hygiene after using the toilet or entering the restroom area.
Food safety agencies, including the FDA have developed recommendations for managing facilities based on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems. Hand hygiene guidelines have been included in systems that are based on HACCP analysis. HACCP is based on seven principles, one of which is monitoring critical control points. Where hand hygiene is essential, HACCP principles call for monitoring of hand hygiene. As for healthcare hand hygiene guidelines, food related hand hygiene guidelines may be evaluated based on monitoring the number of hand hygiene events at a location within a food facility.
As with any mission-critical activity, it is desirable to be able to monitor compliance and to provide systems to encourage and remind workers about expected behaviors. While various systems have been proposed to remind workers about the necessity of hand washing at certain junctures in their work tasks, heretofore, none have been as successful as desired.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a system that would promote and remind workers of hand hygiene at specific activity intervals during their workday. It would also be desirable to provide a system that would identify workers as they engage in the desired activity as well as those who are remiss so that good behavior can be rewarded and poorer performance can be corrected. Finally, it would be desirable to provide a system that could record compliance and non-compliance events both for certification and as a tool for continuing or ongoing worker training.